


The circle of victory and defeat, part 1

by forgerider



Category: Elder Scrolls
Genre: Alternate Universe, Family, Fanfiction, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Magic, Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Platonic Relationships, Reincarnation, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2018-10-14 01:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10525830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgerider/pseuds/forgerider
Summary: A Reincarnations trip trough his early life in the town of Wayrest. (Oc centric story)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there!
> 
> This is my first fanfiction on this site, through this fanfic i wish to tell you, dear readers, a story. But I doubt anyone of you would be willing to read it if it is crap, so if you are interested in continuing reading this story, please drop a review down below and tell me how to improve. I still have much to learn and any help would be appreciated!

Authors note: Anyways, before this story starts i would like to ask that you drop some constructive criticism in the comments, this is my first story and i want to improve. 

On to the story:

x  
svanoa re wux zyak jaunus wer ripples shilta pok jacioniv?  
x

Norway, small town in the countryside 2017

Fir o tjue kråkaa, sitt på en madrass, ennå en villl sitja men de e ikke plass!

The radio sang, filling the otherwise boring environment of the small office with a catchy melody that got promptly interrupted by a shout coming from outside the door.

“Turn that off, we aren’t supposed to listen to music in working hours!” A cry came from outside the office. Jens was roused by the cry from his thoughts and hurried to the end of his desk to turn off the radio. 

“Stop breaking the rules.” The voice continued and its source entered the room. Anders was his name, he strutted in showing himself off. “ Why can’t you understand that rules are there for a reason? I have no idea why they let you be a manager but clearly that was a bad decision.” He explained, situating himself on top of Jens desk, crossing his feet. ” Look, i'll give you one more chance to follow the rules, but one more slip and I’m taking this straight to the higher ups, got that?”

“ crystal.” Jens replied, failing to hide his aversion towards Anders by busying himself with work.

“Well then, I leave you to your duties.” 

“God, what an asshole!” Jens let out when he was sure Anders had left the area. Jens hated him and wanted to punch the ever living crap out of him, and he would have, if he wasn’t afraid. ‘If Anders ever takes his complaints higher up then I might loose my job!’ he thought. “But If I ever get fired then the first thing i’d like to do is punch him in the face” and with that, and went back to work. 

x

After Anders had gone he turned the music back on, but now plugging in his earphones so no one would hear it. With Anders gone he had taken notice that the time was rapidly approaching the end of his shift, in fact only fifteen minutes were left of his shift this day. Wanting to forget about the meeting with Anders and try to enjoy the rest of his birthday in peace he turned on the radio again and let time do its thing. 

x

The road home felt longer than it was, it could be blamed on his mood being down in the pits what with Anders gripes earlier that day and it stretching the road into infinity. But more likely the reason was the knee deep snow and not his mood. Fortunately for him his apartment complex was coming up in the distance and so was his solution for the problems of today.

He, together with five other people lived in the only complete apartment complex in town. The mayor had wanted to build more, and had a construction team lay the foundation for the other complexes due to the city board predicting a rise in population. That rise never came and that coupled with the fact that the first building never filled up left the city’s edge littered with dozens of flat areas and unfilled building frames since the 1980’s. Although as a silver lining the unfilled building frames served as a prime playing ground for children in the summer.

But when winter came the empty floors of the buildings became too slippery and the parents didn’t allow their kids to go there after the first accident had happened on them. And so, when Jens was walking through the abandoned building lots, straight to his home he had no one to witness his moodiness.

His neighbours had also seemed to retreat into their homes for the evening and no one could be seen on the stairs either. Despite this, he felt way better when he stepped within the confines of the complex, the familiar smell rushing into his nose like a mild breeze. 

‘I remember when I used to play hide and seek with the other children here on christmas, every family would host a shared celebration and let the children run wild in the building.’ He thought. No matter how bad his mood was after work, his home never failed to cheer him up. 

Snapping back to present time he took five minutes to shake off the snow from his clothes and then sprinted up the stairs with a renewed vigor and entered his home.

x  
sia svihelen tepohaic seilor udoka, driak-ihi ekess nomeno nadot, coi geou ti loreat. wer nadot shilta ti loreat.  
x

Before his mind could fully register the four figures standing in the hallway his ears were assaulted by a giant:

“SURPRISE!”

The sound scared him straight down to the floor. “ Look i told you mommy, Jens would get scared.” the daughter of Enya, the widow the floor under shouted while pointing at Jens and laughing. Soon the son of the fisherman, Fredrik, joined the other kid and sang with her; 

“scaredycat, scaredycat, Jens is a scaredycat.”

“Now now children, you should apologize to Jens, that wasn’t very nice of you.” The widow said to the kids, scolding them and causing the kids to put their heads down in shame.

“There’s no need Enya, they are just children having fun, it’s harmless”. Jens picked himself up from the floor, coming back to his senses and noticing that the entrance to his apartment had been decorated by balloons and a banner saying: “Happy birthday Jens!”. 

Despite his hallway usually being bland with only a picture of a lemon, hung up by his parents when they were over to spice things up, the decorations put up by his neighbours really turned the place on it’s feet.

“Matters not, I will not have my child grow up to be a bully, now little miss, will you apologize?” After the kids apologized Jens let his neighbours kids go and went with the others to celebrate his unexpected birthday party. 

On their way through the apartment a question popped into Jens’ mind ‘Wait, how did they manage to get into my home?’ He didn’t want to ask the question at first, ‘my neighbours have thrown me a party and now I am going to complain?’ He thought. He tried to drop it but the thought didn’t leave him. Right as they were about to go into the living room he strained his voice and asked the question.

The second the words left his mouth the others froze. For a second they looked at each other, both unwilling to answer the question. 

Finally, the silence was broken by Enya:” Go on, tell him how you did it.” Shifting the weight on Fredrik she stared at him, along with jens who had now regretted asking the question and was starting to cringe internally from the awkwardness hoping Fredrik would simply apologize so they could be on their way.

After trying and failing to form a sentence Fredrik answered: “Well, you know how you lent me your car some days ago?” Jens nodded, remembering the event taking place a couple of days back. “ Well, I didn’t actually need the car, but I thought that you had some spare keys to your house in the car. Look, Jens, if you are going to be mad at me, that’s fine but don’t be mad at Enya I just wanted to throw a surprise party for you and dragged her into it.” He confessed.

“Look, i’m not mad at you, but i am still a little disappointed that you would do this without telling me. If you ever want to throw me a party again, please let me know in advance and i will just give you the keys.” They looked significantly relieved at Jens forgiving them.

“Thank you Jens, now I assure you the surprise waiting for you in the living room will not come with any strings attached, after all, I was the one responsible for it.” Enya clapped her hands together and led him into the living room.

And when Jens entered the room surprised he was. For the table had a huge cake on it. Two hands were laid on his shoulder, “Happy birthday” His neighbours said.

“You are the best neighbours a guy could wish for, thank you!” Jens rushed to the table, all but forgetting the prior conversation. 

 

The party was over in an hour, and consisted of nothing but him and his neighbours eating cake and talking. Despite that, it was the best hour he had this day. His neighbours kind act towards him alleviated all the weight he had on his mind from his day at work. Unfortunately the party couldn’t last forever and his Neighbours excused themselves and went home, leaving Jens to himself.

After he had cleaned the table he decided to continue to celebrate his birthday in private by playing some of his favourite games from his childhood. Putting the last dish into the old dishwasher his parents had gifted him 10 years ago he went into his bedroom where he had his pc.  
x  
shar svabol sjek coi tiric?  
x

“Die, you piece of shit cliffracer, yea how do you like them fireballs!?” He fired off yet another spell, right now he was deeply engaged into that what brought him no shortage of joy, killing cliffracers by the hundreds with overpowered magic spells. 

Seven hours had passed since he started playing and midnight was fastly approaching. Jens took video games more seriously than he took life, which was easily seen by the sheer vigor with which he massacred, in his own words “Smug little sanctuary hoarding assholes.” or cliff racers as they are known to the casual elder scrolls player.

“Abracadabr..” before the full word and the mouse click that followed were complete his stomach cried out with a high rumble. Jens tried to ignore the rumble for a minute but then it came back, but this time too, Jens ignored it. After the eleventh time the stomach managed to persuade Jens and with a defeated look he paused the game and went back to the kitchen to take a slice of the cake.

Returning with the cake, barely eating it, he rushed towards the table and continued his battle with the hordes of hell. The annoying sound came again and to satisfy it Jens took a big piece of cake in order to shut it up.

Only for it to lodge itself stuck in his neck. It took about five seconds before Jens realised that he was suffocating and by then the cake had already fully covered his windpipe. Falling down from his chair in panic all he could do was trash about his floor as he tried to choke the cake up from his neck. But all that did was use up what little air he had left.

One last thing flashed by in Jens mind as he fell down into darkness ”I.. died?” The laugh of the cliff racers accompanied his soul into the depths of oblivion.  
x  
Two streams, endlessly circling each other, One of death and one of light extending into infinity. As they were about to meet for yet another time a light entered them.  
x  
Being shaken awake from the darkness I wasn’t given a single second before my nerves were assaulted by pain.’ Oh god why is there flesh all around me, why can’t I breathe? Why am I alive? Oh god what happened to my arms, my head, my house?’.

I tried to open my eyes and see what was around me but when I tried it was as if they were glued shut and even when I managed to squint open an eye for a second it was invaded by foreign flesh and burned. Trying to breathe in air didn’t do anything as both my nostrils were clogged. ‘Oh god, get me out of here!’ I tried to scream but instead all that came out was a muffled grunt and a strange liquid poured into my open mouth. 

Lucky for me my prayers were answered and I could feel something pushing me out. 

Unfortunately it seems that whatever stuck me in here wants to get some extra enjoyment from me being tormented as I see no other reason as to why I was being pushed out so slowly. After what felt like an hour, I was no closer to being pushed out, hope deflated, I resigned myself to my fate and cried on the inside, as crying with my eyes would burn them.

x

Waking myself up from the pain I noticed something that gave me back my hope, a bit of wind landed on the top of my head. With a newfound hope I started to fight towards the opening.

‘My body feels really weird, like it had been shrunk.’ My body was beginning to cool down from the air coming from the opening but it still felt unbelievably damp. ‘Wait a second, the flesh, the small body the dampness… OH GOD’ I realized what was happening right now and lay paralyzed by the discovery. My mind wasn’t left to ponder it for long though as in that moment I was fully pushed out and a pair of giant arms took me. 

‘Who turned the cooler on?’ the drop in temperature was as abrupt as a cliff, but still a welcoming change from the tight and damp hell that I had just been in. The instant I was in the air and had coughed out the liquid I could feel metal brush against my stomach, after a jolt of pain something fell down from my stomach.

Words hit my ear, bringing me slowly back to my senses. Focusing back on the world around me I could feel someone hold me, with my senses fully back to me I heard my first words in this place.

 

“Congratulations lady Isabelle, It’s a girl!”   
x  
Legends say you can still hear the wail echoing in the halls of the nursery.  
x  
hak mobi ui thric charis!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I went on vacation and couldn't write. Anyways, enjoy this chapter and remember: Any constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Jensxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the wails quieted down after my small lungs ran out of air, I felt that the Nurse which had said those cursed words was still holding me. “Got yourself a kicker, m...” Before the sentence could be finished my baby instincts along with my anger kicked back in and unfortunately for my new parents, my lungs weren’t empty anymore.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My Lungs and my anger couldn’t hold out for long and soon I had calmed down, well if you count being on the edge of crying yourself a river, calm, then yes I was calm. “You know, I was about to say that you had a real kicker but with all due respect I take it back, your daughter is a banshee.” The nurse had an accent I couldn’t put my finger on, It was some mixture of English and American.

When my family recovered they started to stare at me and aww about how cute I was, well my sis, well not really sister but technically yes, forget it, if my family saw the situation I was in I am decently sure that they wouldn’t think any less of me for calling these new “biological parents” parents. 

Anyway, while my sister and mother were busy gushing about how cute my little face was I could see my Father come towards me, he took his time getting to me and when he came he did the unthinkable; started gushing right along with my sister and mother. “Divines be praised Erver, we have such beautiful kids.” My mother told my father.

Now that they were so close, my newborn eyes could see how my new family actually looked, rather than seeing them as some vague human shapes. although when observing them my eyes tended to wander off of them when my brain went through the repeated process of realizing that I had just been born again.

Looking at people tended to distract me from my thoughts when I was stressed and right now my brain was as stressed as it had ever been. 

But Eventually I managed to overpower a bad habit and took in the sight of my new family.

My Father, apparently named Erver, was a tall man with brown hair, not unlike my sister and mother. Apart from his height the other thing that stood out to me was his beard and the insignia he carried on his robe, it was a simplistic design of an anchor on a shield, part of some nobility maybe?

My sister’s head just barely reached the top of the bed my mother was looking at me from, and in facial features she was a small version of my mom, who had long hair, and a face which reminded me of Korra from the avatar. 

‘So this were the people that just had to give birth to me? They just had to get a second child, in the middle ages, oh how smart, I bet they would have gotten straight A’s if they went to college.’ I thought. ‘And now, because of them I am stuck in some backwards middle age world!’

Through my anger I noticed that the room I was in had a big bed, one with curtains around it, right now moved to the sides. The bed took up most of the room and what space the bed didn’t take was left undecorated.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a door being opened, I tried to turn my small head towards the door but accidentally hurt it from doing it to fast and let out a quick scream. The scream didn’t go unnoticed, the nurse started petting me on the head, probably trying to calm me down.

“Easy there, you’re going to hurt yourself.” She said

‘UUgh, If I find out who sent me here I am going to slap them.’

“I see your wife has already given birth, soldier.” the man said in a gruff and old voice, ignoring the nurse. 

Seeing the man, my father turned to me and excused himself after telling me “Now don’t cry, father is going to come back soon.” and pinching my nose, the latter was not a pleasant experience. As they excited I could see that the man wore the same robe as my father.

“Zaba, give me the baby, I would like to carry her myself.” My new mother sat up on the bed and held her arms out, I didn’t even drop as I passed from the nurse's arms to her’s. “You may go Zaba.” The maid, who I now could see was about average in height and had grey skin.

‘wait why does she have grey skin?’ “Yes, Sera” she answered and left me alone with my mother and sister.

‘Sera, dark skin and pointy ears? I wasn’t just reborn into any medieval world, I was born into Tamriel!’ While my brain tried to figure out what to make of this I was apparently starting to shake as my mother was now rocking me back and forth in her arms. 

It worked, my brain was slowly calming down and so was my body. “There, there, everything's okay.”.

“Mom, mom, what will we name her?” My sister screamed while jumping up and down next to me. 

‘Augh, did she have to be so loud?’ I already knew that I wouldn’t be able to cover my ears, but that did not stop me from trying.

 

“Hush, Anne, you are scaring the baby. We will wait for daddy to get back before we do that, don’t you remember my promise?” 

“Oh maybe Anne, maybe helen maybe Isabelle maybe maybe.” My sister guessed. 

“No, we will not name her Isabelle after me or Anne after you, I told you. We will wait for your father to get back, it is his turn to name the child.” Despite the answer my sister continued to come up with names for me, much to the visible displeasure of my mother.

She suddenly stopped. Soon after she stopped, my father walked in.

“What’s wrong Erver?” My mother said, raising her head.

“Nothing dear, nothing is wrong.” He reassured her and kissed her on her cheek. “Erver, I know that face and that face isn’t a face that isn’t a happy one, out with it.” 

“Honey, it’s fine, really. Now, where is my little bundle of joy?” 

“I hate it when you do this, I know you are hiding something and I will find it out sooner or later.” She sighed

“Anyways,Anne couldn’t wait for you to get back so you could name the baby!” she started to rock me in her arms.   
“Well then sweetie, you won’t have to wait any longer because I have already decided.” My father said and patted my sister on the back. 

“What is it, what is it!?” 

“She will be named Adrianne, after her grandmother.”

‘Great, it had to be something girly!’ I thought while letting out some tears. 

“Shh,shh, don’t cry, mama’s going to feed you.” 

My mind blanked out for a second at those words ‘Wait,what?’

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
I spent what felt like two hours in the nursery, being fed by my mother. After the time passed my father went to bring in a nurse to help my mother out of bed, despite her protests. 

By that time, my eyes had also gotten more used to the world and I could see better with them.  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
When my father came back with a nurse, I saw that she was the same one that held me earlier. She rushed to my mother's side and tried to help her out of the bed. Although she did try to help, my mother didn’t want it and rejected her help. 

She tried to go by herself but quickly stopped, as she was starting to shake. My instincts were bordering to sending me into a crying fit, but my mind managed to hold them off.

’Jesus woman, put aside your pride for a goddamn minute, I haven’t even lived out my first day! Although with the state of things, death wouldn’t be exactly unwelcome!’

“Zaba, could you come over here and help me, I don’t want my baby to die before she even has reached her first year.” 

‘Thank you!’

Zaba, who had been standing beside us did not waste any time before springing to action and helping my mother walk down the room. Step by step it seemed my mother got back her legs and soon we were on our way out of the building.

The halls I was led through were surprisingly well decorated for a nursery, which was what I assumed this place was. The walls were covered by embroiled carpets and lined by gold, almost like in those cheap hotels, however here it was done well and it genuinely looked nice as opposed to looking like a failed attempt at making the place feel fancy.

However as we were led down the stairs, the walls and decoration became less and less fancy until we reached what looked like a smaller version of today’s, well technically not today's, but my world’s hospitals. It seemed that the upper levels were reserved for rich folk who could afford the luxury.

While the hospital was clean for middle aged standards, it was not by ours. The smell of some foreign herbs lingered in the air while some unknown substance was smeared on the wall, in addition some doctors forgot to lock their doors which resulted in me Accidentally peeking in on some lizard having his teeth removed.

So, there is no more to doubt to it, I really am in Nirn, or at least some variant of it. For all I know this could be a nirn where dagoth ur took over Tamriel, although since I haven’t seen an ash vampire yet, I can assume, or at least hope that it is not the case.

As we exited the hospital I finally got a look on the world itself, what i saw amazed me. Even what looked like to be the poorest houses were built with a sharp roof made of some kind of blue stone and the walls were lined with basalt, trapping the white bricks of the houses inside “frames”. It didn’t matter how much i was awestruck by the city as my family didn’t give me a single second to admire it and instead went over to something.

That something turned out to be a carriage, and instead of being no more than a cart with a horse in front of it, they were a beautiful show of craftsmanship, the cart and wheels being made out of something that looked like ebony, the edges of the black cart line with silver and to add to that the driver himself, a nord or an Imperial, wore a fancy robe.

“Imol, It’s a girl!” My father shouted and ran with his arms open to the driver, the driver returned the gesture and they shared a quick hug. 

‘Don’t remind me.’

“So erver, where is the beaut?” He asked and just in time I, my mother, along with my sister, caught up with him and showed me off to him. 

The driver had a much more toned down reaction than my father had upon seeing me and instead just smiled as he looked at me. “Got her father’s eyes, she does” The driver looked up to my father. 

“She is less than a day old, there is no guarantee her eyes will remain that way, I can see that she has brown under those blue eyes, just like her mother and sister.”

“Oh, honey, don’t be jealous, Leave some kids for me.” 

“hmmp, never!” she said and both my mother and father shared a laugh.

“Zaba, please help her up this chariot, watch the baby.” Quickly the nurse did as ordered by my father with a quick: ”yes sir.”.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The ride took longer than I had expected it to be. 

Sometime after we left the hospital we passed a gate, and the city changed from a cluttered town, filled with people going about their day to a neatly arranged city with each building having its own property. We must have entered the rich district. 

It was also at that time when the sun that shone throughout the whole ride was covered by gray clouds, the driver was quick to notice it and stopped the carriage to get out of it and lift up a cover over the cart, doing so without a word spoken. Just as he finished it the clouds started to have rain leave them and hit the roof of our carriage. The driver hurried into the carriage and drove us further. 

My sister who had been dying trying to sit still for the whole journey finally had enough and hopped over to where I was being held by my mother. Her eagerness overwhelmed me and I felt like even if I wasn’t a baby right now I wouldn’t be able to respond. 

“Be quiet dear, you are scaring the baby.” She said, but instead of quieting down my sister responded with “This isn’t scary, mom, THIS is scary.” and before I could react she made a grimace at me. 

I felt something drop.

Nobody said a word.

“Anne, how dare you do that to your own sister, when we are get home you are going to pay!” My mother tried and failed to keep her tone down. Her expression causing visible fear in my sister’s eyes.

“This behaviour won’t do, we are going to have a talk later, now sit down.” Father said much more calmly than my mother, and went over to her and hugged us both.

“It’s alright dear, I’ve calmed down. Now tell Imol to stop the carriage I have to change her sheets.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When we arrived we did so at a fancy mansion, small compared to the other buildings, but still larger than anything I could have ever hoped to buy.

It carried the same architecture as the other buildings in the city. It had two floors with four large windows facing forward, each having its own balcony that was held up from the ground by columns. The Wall surrounding the cottage had been built with small towers at the corners and at the gate of the wall. In one of the towers a man in armour slept. 

“Guard! Wake up, we don’t pay you to sleep on the job!” My mother shouted and the guard immediately rose up. “Sorry ma’m! Won’t happen again ma’m!” The guard shouted back and assumed a guarding position. 

“Sorry about my wife, she has just given birth and is a little bit on the edge.” My father apologized.

“I see, congratulation sir, I wish your baby a long life and fulfilling life, sir, now i must go and patrol the wall….Sir” The guard responded and went away, according to him to patrol, although seeing as he was just now slacking off, I wouldn’t put too much money on it. 

As we entered the house my father hugged my mother and she hugged him back with one arm, her tension being eased. “Oh dear I can’t believe we are already raising two wonderful children, marrying you was the happiest day of my life.” she sighed, mood completely reversed from the anger she had just shown.

And with that she went with me up the stairs, which were built around a column in the main hall, there was an identical staircase on the opposite side of the hall. 

The second floor had only one thing as far as I could tell; corridors. Corridors with tables, vases and paintings decorating the walls, some doors scattered around. I was expecting something grander to be honest.

She turned left and I got carried down the hallway, before being turned around and carried down another hallway. This pattern repeated three times and by the end of it I was feeling sick. 

My father hurried forward and opened the door to a room with light blue walls, stars scattered across them, blinds carrying the same pattern and a small crib in the corner. Gently, my mother lowered me into it and covered me with some sheets before hushing my sister away. “Let her sleep now.” she said to her and left the room with my sister and father, closing the blinds.

In the small room I was left alone with only myself and the reality, no, absurdity and unfairness of my situation.

Annexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“I can’t believe my parents, one moment, they are all “Oh erver I’m so glad we have children, they are the best ever please smooch me!” and the next they are grounding me for joking around a bit, ITS NOT FAIR!“ I screamed at Sir Ragnar, my toy wolf. “How can they do this? I only wanted to make her laugh, why, why why why?!” I cried, stuffing my face into a pillow. 

The pillow soon became stained by my tears and I had to lift my face up from it. “I hate my parents!” Without the pillow my sobbing was starting to get loud again.

“Calm down, Anne! You don’t want those idiots to come to you right now!” I shouted at myself, calming down for a moment.

And promptly resuming crying into the wet pillow.

“No, no,no,no no! I won’t listen to my parents, I waited so long for my sibling to be born and to become an awesome big sister. They will not do this, they can’t do this!” I stood up, tears still streaming down my face. ‘Yes, if they won’t allow me to see my sibling, then I will sneak into her room and see her by myself!’ I thought and wiped off my tears with the blinds. 

“I am going to be the best big sister in the world, that is a promise that is going to start right now!” With determination i marched out of my room,   
only to trip and fall on the doors railing.

I began to cry.

“Hope mom didn’t hear that.” I tried to say after the tears left, but the floor muffled most of it. Slowly rising from it I began marching towards Adrianne’s room. “Oh, sister must be feeling so lonely right now, alone in that room with nobody to keep her company.”

Suddenly i jumped as i felt someone grab my shoulder. “ And where are you going young lady.” No, that couldn’t be!

Recognizing the voice I slowly turned my head around and my fears were proven right. Old Argon the hierophant, chief priest of the nine in the city stood before me. ‘Oh, no! I didn’t know mom and dad had guests over. How did he catch me, didn’t I speak really quiet? No, I am too far in to give up!’ ”Somewhere where you can’t follow, old man.” I shouted and ran like Molag Bal himself was chasing me.

‘Argon may be praying to Kynareth each day but I still know my way around the house better than he ever will.’ Being chased around the floor I tried to think of a way to lose him. Sprinting and thinking wasn’t easy but I managed to come up with a plan. I had to get him to think I had gone downstairs by rounding a corner before he did and throwing a hairpin down the stairs to make it look like I ran there. 

My sister’s trouble filled me with determination and the plan worked! 

’Heh, Anne:1 Grown ups:0 ’

Pouring all the energy I could into my legs I dashed straight for my sister’s room, afraid that Argon would realize what had happened and come back for me. ‘There! There is the door!’  
“Sister, I’m coming for you!”

Jens, some time earlierxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shortly after they had left a guard entered the room, bringing a small wooden bench to sit on. Ignoring the guard I began to think. 

‘So, reincarnation eh? Well, I never really believed in an afterlife but if I knew it was going to be this I would have cherished every moment I could, apparently someone forgot to give my my penis back! What’s up with that. I have done nothing wrong in my life and this is what i am being rewarded with? In addition I just HAD to be born in the middle ages, when we couldn’t even figure out that if we didn’t wash ourselves we would get sick.’

‘Wait a second, this is the elder scroll universe, the argonian and the dark elf confirm that, that means… holy shit, magic is real!‘

Casting all my grievances aside I looked down upon my tiny hand and tried to summon some magic. I tried to feel out my body for anything new, wherever it would hide and try to bring it forth. Every point of my body was searched, the brain, the heart and even the liver.

I sat like that for a long time and just when I was about to give up I could feel something inside of me move towards my hand. I could swear I saw something come out of my hand but the moment i saw something I lost all concentration and it disappeared and wouldn’t reaper no matter how many times I tried. ‘ Wow, don’t remember feeling that tired or nausuggh’

My body was quickly falling unconscious and the last thing I felt before being swallowed by darkness was my body throwing up.

Annexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Slamming the door open I fell on the floor, unable to handle my speed.

“Anne, what are you doing here.” 

’Oh no..’ 

Picking myself up I saw that mom and dad were crouching next to the crib with the family doctor smearing something over my sister’s forehead.

‘Wait, why is the doctor here, oh divines!’ The doctor coming to her so early could only mean one thing!

“How could you! You left her alone and she died! You finally give me a sibling and then you kill her when she gets here! I hate you I hate you.” I punched my father and broke down crying. 

Surprisingly, my mother hugged me. “Oh sweetie, I am so glad you care, but she isn’t dead.” Mom consoled me.

“S-she isn’t?”

“No, but she is sick, and the doctor is helping her.” Still sniffing I approached the crib and took another look at Adrianne, ‘Oh Akatosh, she’s breathing’ I wanted to hug her there and then but the doctor’s arm stopped me. 

“Lady Anne, you have to understand, while your sister is not dead she is very unstable now. Somehow, all of her magika was routed from her developing brain into her blood veins, luckily for all of you she lost conscience before it reached a deadly level, the influx of air her blood veins started transporting when powered by the magika was the only thing that saved her brain. She is stable but you shouldn’t touch her, it may disrupt blood flow in one of her veins and right now her brain needs every single bit of air.”

 

“But she i-is going to live, right doc?” I asked, voice trembling. “As I said, she lost consciousness before magika loss became fatal and the magika went right back into the brain, however her brain was almost killed and now it needs air to repair itself. I have smeared a mixture of Honeycombs and netch jelly on her, along with summoning Argon,I assume you know who it is, who should arrive shortly to bestow the blessing of Kynareth upon her. ”

Hearing that she was going to live I hugged my parents and softly cried into their chests. ‘I swear, I am always going to protect you Adrianne, I won’t let you die!’ I swore to myself and continued to cry, because today I had almost lost a sister.


	3. chapter 3

Authors note: New chapter, yay, and this one on time! What a twist! Anyways for those of you that read my fic I just want to say that I appreciate that. As always constructive criticism is appreciated, it helps me improve. 

Huge credit to M.M rose who edited this chapter!

Anyways on to the story:

 

Four years later 

Magic was something in the old world that was told to you as a child in fairy tales, cartoons and movies, and in each of these stories the way magic was used was something grand, cleanse an entire world of evil, flying even living forever was every day life when magic was involved. 

Most kids, understandably fell in love with this concept, this idea of being unimaginably powerful. And then they grew up and didn’t receive their Hogwarts letter, didn’t discover that their real parents were ancient elves, didn’t get their pokemon journey.But in this world magic was very real. Levitation, magelight and even in some cases pyromancy was, while not something you would see every day, it was still nothing unheard of. 

And these people thought it was boring. 

‘What the fuck.’

“Come on Adrianne why would you wanna study magic? It’s super boring!” The Altmer child said while digging up some dolls out of her bag, the other girls in the rooms giddy in anticipation. I did a double take. 

“Are you serious?” I had to ask.

“How can you think magic is boring?” 

“Like, you have to study a lot and like sit down and read, that’s so boring!” The Altmer kid. Who I remembered her parents introduced as Maybelline said. 

“Now come on, these dolls are straight from Valenwood!” The kids stared in awe at the doll, while I was standing in the doorway still dumbfounded.

Maybelline looked up to me again and motioned for me to come. I thought that some sitting would be good for me right now, plus I didn’t have anything better to do and my parents would simply force me to go back here if I sneaked out anyway. 

“Hey, my aunt says that those dolls are used to summon daedric princes!” One girl from the crowd shouted, generating a “woooah” from the group.

“And my mom says those things are used in love potions.” A similar sound was made by the crowd. As another girl came up with something to impress her peers with I began to tune out the conversation. 

So to recap, what had happened?

The night four years ago was still fresh in the back of my mind. One doesn’t just forget almost dying from not knowing how to use magick, or simply dying from a cake baked by some nice neighbours either. 

‘Damn, what a dumb way to go down, no one around to even hear my last words. Although I don’t think they were anything noteworthy, what was it? Something about failing? Well, I was more concerned with not dying rather than saying something witty though so I can forgive myself for that.’

I had apparently been born as a Breton, which wasn’t my favourite race when playing elder scrolls. That honor went to the Argonians. But it certainly wasn’t bad.

As a Breton I was naturally born into High rock, the city of Wayrest to be precise. I hadn’t played Daggerfall so I didn’t know much about this place, but from what I had learned from the library and from my parents, this place was a pretty big deal.

It lay on a crucial road between the now sacked Orsinium, the Empire and the rest of High Rock. While I didn’t support the sacking I could clearly see how much wealth it had given the city. Refugees had streamed down here to build themselves a new life and now that the orcs were gone the traders felt safer and the roads around the town were used more and more for trading. This had grown the city into the trading hub it was today, being on the coast didn’t hurt it’s trade either.

 

In my three years here I have learned two things:

1: Being a small girl sucks, While discrimination between genders isn’tas bad as in our middle ages, you can definitely see some of it in the nobility. Me being “only” the daughter of a knight and having a mother not even from the “upper graces” of society helped,however. 

I also noticed that I was starting to feel some emotions that were alien to me. For example I actually cried once when my mother didn’t,umm... feed, yes feed me enough back when I was less than a year old.

Also peeing was hard as a girl, Enough said.

2: Magic is hard. As soon as I could speak, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a book about magic, hoping that it would be possible to send me back to my own world with a spell, or at least change me back to my original gender. However I soon discovered that I had been naive.   
Firstly the librarian didn’t let me read any of the juicy stuff, instead directing me to a basic overview of the concept. But to be fair to him, I wouldn’t let a small child read about how to summon unimaginable powers either. 

Secondly, even from the basic overview that I got, I could see that it was not as simple as swinging a wand and saying some words. It required concentration, power and a literal shit ton of safety procedures if you were just starting. If you didn’t have all of those things you would die in a horrific way: freezing one's blood, falling into another dimension or even giving yourself cancer that killed you within the hour were common causes of death in overambitious mages. 

 

Coming back to the present situation, I now saw that the other girls had shifted topic to which one of the guards was the cutest. Realizing that sooner or later the conversation would turn to me I went out of the room, careful to not cause any noise. Once I passed the doorway, I dashed as fast as I could, which wasn’t that fast given how young I was, plus I tired myself out very quickly. I soon realized this and shifted tactics to power walking.

‘Ah there it is, the toilet, my greatest enemy and my greatest friend.’ I opened up the door and went into our toilet room, picking one of the stalls. Being a knight certainly had its perks, Having lots of money or septims, as they were called here, was one of them. 

I closed the lid and sat on it, deciding to stay here for at least ten minutes until the conversation would shift to something not as hurtful to my inner masculinity.

Taking out my hand I focused on it, and repeating a now rehearsed process, I summoned a small red fire. 

While trying to summon anything really impressive would have killed me, summoning this fire was harmless and a great way to train my magical prowess. At first the fire had been brown and I could only keep it up for five seconds, but now it had intensified to a weak red and I could keep it up for a good five minutes, I took it out whenever I had the time, hoping to be able to do cool things with it one day.

‘This isn’t so bad, I got magic, money and a huge house maybe I should-’ Catching my thoughts, I shook myself out of it.

‘Jens, what are you thinking? These people took away your masculinity, took away your world, and they took away your internet! Don’t you dare!’. With my mood ruined I tried to focus the anger into my flame, making it burn a bit brighter,but a bit harder to maintain.

Suddenly the door was slammed open, lifting up my head I could see it was my sister. She quickly took hold of my hand and the magic dispersed.

“Adrianne, what were you doing? You know you’re not allowed to use magic! Remember what happened last time?” My sister shouted.

“It was an accident, the doctor even told you! I read a whole book about magic safety before even thinking of attempting this, so stop thinking I am going to kill myself with it!” Okay, it was more like one chapter, but a book sounded more impressive than that.

“You’re dumb! What if it happens again? You’re going to die! I have to be a good sister and look out for you, because you won’t do it yourself.”

“You only do this for yourself, not for me! If I die, then how will you ever be the best big sister that you claim you are? ”I shouted.

“It’s never about you, is it?” She shouted back. 

We both blew a raspberry at each other and turned away. Shortly after she began to cry. I tried my best to not give in, but it was hard. Before I could give in the door opened and my mom came in.

“What’s this screaming all about?” She asked, hands crossed over her chest.

“I was just minding my own business, going to the toilet and then-”

Not even letting me finish, my sister chimed in,”She was using magic, I saw her!”

“You have no proof!” I said, trying to keep my voice down, so as to seem more trustworthy to mom, My sister, on the other hand, raised her voice as high as possible. My mother’s face betrayed that she couldn’t take it anymore and she gripped both of our shoulders.

‘I didn’t even scream! What’s this all about?’ I thought.

“Adrianne, listen to me sweetie.” My mother said. I turned around to face her. “You were away from your birthday party for a whole hour. The others have already gone to our garden. There is no way that you spent so long on the toilet, so please, sweetie, don’t lie to me”

Fuck, had I really been away for a whole hour? I could have sworn that I was only fidgeting with the fire for max 10 minutes, guess I was deeper in thought than I thought I was.

 

Weighing my options, I decided to tell the truth. “Fine, I did. When she came in I was practicing my magic. It was only a small fire, nothing serious.” I held out my hand and summoned a smaller, brown version of my flame, similar to the one that I had started out with. 

“Mom, please. I’ve read about safety and everything. Magic is my passion, please don’t take it from me.” I said. The anticipation as I waited for her answer was unbearable   
“For such a smart child, you sure do miss the simplest of things,.” My mother started. This didn’t bode well.”We almost lost you to a magic accident when you were just born. Such wounds do not heal over a short time.“

“It’s been three years!” 

“Honey, It’s not easy for me to do this. I can really see that you love magic, but I just can’t allow you to do it right now. I promise that me and your father will do everything to support you once you are a little older. Hopefully you will understand this when you get a family of your own.”

Even though I wanted to do nothing more than cry, I knew that that was the child in me speaking. I took some breaths to calm down ”So what does this mean for me?”

“That we forbid you from practicing magic until you are at least six years old.” My sister looked relieved at my mother’s verdict and exited the room without another word I was about to leave the toilet too, but my mother called me back.

“Could I have a word with you, in private?” Turning around, I faced my mom. “I remember how I was as a kid, honey.When my parents told me to do something, I would often rebel.Now I suspect that you will do the same. I really don’t want to give you an overseer who follows you around all day, but I don’t want you practicing magic at such a young age, either. So please promise me that you won’t practice magic until you are at least six, and I promise that your father and I will hire you a tutor in magick when you reach that age. How does that sound?”

I had to take a minute to think about how I should answer.

‘If I choose to continue practice magic I could get more experience by the time I was six, but if I get a tutor I would get way more knowledge and guidance in the field. This was my first serious choice in my short life here, and I couldn’t answer it on a whim.

Through the whole ordeal, my mother waited patiently for me to answer. In the end, I took a deep breath and said it: “Mother, I promise that I won’t use magic until I am six.” I was still unsure about this.What if having three extra years would be better for me? 

‘Maybe I should have picked the other option?’ But before I could come to a second conclusion, my mother hugged me.

“That was all I wanted to hear from you, Adrianne, I’m sorry for this. You can go.” she said, and went away.

I felt like I needed some more time to myself, so I decided to spend some time in my room instead of going to the garden immediately.

As I went back to my room I thought about today’s events. Today had been my fourth birthday, and it had been the worst one yet. Why? Because as a part of the nobility, even if it’s the lower echelons , it was custom to invite other nobles to birthday parties, well children’s birthday parties to be exact. My mother and father hated it, but because of my father’s status he was forced to do it. From what I could guess, it was for nobles to look for potential suitors to their children.

Those nobles were some of the shittiest people I had ever met, well most of them, anyway. Some of them simply acted fancy and stood out of most of the arguments, but some radiated an aura of passive aggressiveness at all times and tried to create as much drama as possible. But no, the worst time was when on my second birthday a nobleman had come and asked my parents if they could marry me off to him. 

To be honest, I didn’t know who was most appalled by the man, me or my parents. It was to no surprise that my father sucker-punched him in the gut and threw him out. The man swore to make my father pay, but judging by my father’s mood the days after the incident, nothing came of it.And now that I could talk I was expected to socialize with kids my age. That’s why this birthday was the worst.

If the nobles hadn’t been infuriating enough, talking with three to four year old girls was. Having them go on and on about the most trivial things, make terrible jokes and discuss their newest dresses was honest to god torture, and for a while I felt like I was going to pop.I was lucky that I managed to sneak out when I had the chance and get a whole hour away from them. So yeah, birthdays sucked.

My room was coming up.

I didn’t sleep in the small room I had slept in as a baby anymore. Instead, my room now was about three times the size it had been before, coming with its own little balcony. It had a huge cupboard, having more space than I think I would ever need, but oh well. The blinds were now the same green colour as my bed sheets, and the walls were clear white. Overall, it was a good room.

I threw myself on the bed and started to hit the sheets out of frustration. I debated taking off my yellow dress while I was in here, but decided against it. I would have to put it back on anyways and it was comfortable as far as dresses go, especially compared to that purple monstrosity my parents put on me on my first birthday.

‘God, why did I make that promise? I could have been practicing magic right now but noo, I just had to go and agree to not using magic for two whole years!’ I let out a sigh and punched the sheets harder.

I was really tempted to break the promise, but I resisted. I wouldn’t go around breaking promises. Pushing myself off the bed, I stood up and started pacing around the room, thinking about what I should do.

‘Wait, my father has an armoury! If I can’t practice magic, then I could practice melee!’ I was in the age of warriors and adventurers, after all. If i trained my melee skills, then I could become a battle mage! Sometimes in rpgs I played as a warrior rather than a mage and it was fun too. More fun than a rogue, to be sure.

Melee didn’t fascinate me as much as magic, but it was better than sitting around all day knitting or walking in the garden, Plus if I planned on becoming a mage, it would be nice having something to fall back on if I couldn’t use my magick. But first, I needed to pick what kind of weapon I wanted to specialize with.

The guests could wait, I had an armoury to visit.

The armoury wasn’t built in the house. Instead, a small walkway through the garden on the right side of the house connected the two. It looked just as impressive from outside as it looked from the inside. Rows upon rows of maces, swords, spears, halberds and all other kinds of weapons lined the walls on both floors like bookshelves. There were some weapons that looked so alien that I didn’t even know how one was supposed to use them.

One that particularly got my attention was, from what I could see, a giant pong racket, decorated by a scene of spirits leaving the bodies of snake like creatures and flying up as their physical bodies turned to ash. It had a smaller pong racket below the big one. This one sported a much simpler decoration consisting of a circle in the bottom that changed colour from purple to blue depending on how you looked at it. The whole thing was locked within a cage.

 

“A warfan, recovered from the expedition to Akaviri.” A voice interrupted my thoughts. Turning around to see who it was, I found it was a guard whose name I didn’t know. He was wearing glasses instead of a helmet. Father had many recruits to the Wayrest militia be drafted temporarily as a guard to the mansion, guarding less important positions as experience, so I often saw new guards each week. This must be one of them.

Apparently he had seen me enter the armoury and either wanted to earn brownie points with my father by helping me, or simply wanted to help me just because. I found the former more likely. 

“Akaviri?” I feigned ignorance. Of course I knew about it, but even I realized that there was no way a child could have known about it. The continent wasn’t common knowledge. I couldn’t find a single book about it in the public library.

“It is a continent, one month’s journey beyond the shores of Morrowind, or so I have heard. Uriel Septim the fifth launched a fleet to retaliate against the continent’s many pirates, and your father’s ancestors brought this home with them from a local shaman.” damn, even got the Septim right, impressive!

“How do you know about this?” I questioned him.

“Heh, well, History is something of a hobby to me, and when I was stationed here I couldn’t help but to do some research into the various unique pieces in this armoury.” If it was that unique, I could see why they put a cage around it.

“Well, that’s nice.” I said. an awkward silence came over us. Finally, I broke it.

“Anyway, I have to go now.” I excused myself, and the guard did so too.

I felt the proverbial clock ticking and decided to sprint down to a section with less expensive weapons while I still had some time, before my mother came looking for me again. 

After five minutes of looking through the sea of aisles, I found one with rows of basic weapons made of iron. As i looked through them I could see two guards standing on the second floor, looking down at me. Ignoring them, I continued to browse.

I went through knives, swords, and maces until I found something that got my attention. It was a sword, but longer than any of the other swords. It was bigger than me but something about that sword called out to me. I put my hand on it and tried to lift it. It barely budged. Placing my other hand on the hilt I tried again. still nothing. On the third attempt, I tried to put my feet to use too and lift it up, but it didn’t work. As my third attempt failed I could hear the guards chattering above me, probably mocking me. 

I tried again. It was as if their mockery grew more and more twisted as my attempts went on. They just wouldn’t stop dismissing my efforts and takeing every chance they could to laugh at me. 

Finally I had had it.

“If you think I’m that bad at using the sword, then maybe you can do it yourself!” I shouted at the guards and ran off. I exited the armory and ran and ran until I found the guests, sitting alone in the garden with one of the maids the Altmer had brought with them and discussing some new doll. 

I fell down near the tree and let go all of my emotions at once. The party, the promise and finally those fucking guards! I couldn’t take it anymore. I cried, not caring about the crowd.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my back. “What’s wrong, Adrianne?” The girl said. I turned around and through bleary eyes I could still see that it was the Altmer girl, Maybelline.

“I don’t want to talk about it!” I snapped. Why was she suddenly so concerned with my problems?

 

“Oh, you.” she said, and I guess she did something because I could hear the other girls and the maid walk away.

“You know, each time I've seen you, I never saw you cry. I thought you were like a like a warrior lady or something, but now I see that you are just like the rest of us. I know that I haven’t talked to you much. but I feel bad when mommy or daddy, or anyone really, is having a bad time. I just want to help, Adrianne, please.What happened

I didn’t want it but I spilled everything: the promise,the party and the incident in the armoury.

“Oh Adrianne, your parents just care about you! There’s no reason to worry.Besides I’ve heard that the tutors are really good at magic, and like, you’re a Breton too. You’ll learn so much!” Gee, when did she become my mom?

“And, about the guards... Adrianne, did you know that I can cook?”

“No, why?” 

“I wasn’t always this good at it. When I first started making food, I was really bad at it. I burned soup at one point.” That forced a chuckle out of me.

“See, I was horrible! But I liked cooking and did it again and again and again, a million trillion times! Hearing each time about how bad it was from the maid, and what a huge mess it was. But one day I baked some good cookies, and from that day I started making all kinds of food and now the maid is one of my biggest fans!” She beamed at me.

“So listen to me, Adrianne. Go there each day and try to lift it, and when you do, shove it in the face of those meanies!” She finished the story and hugged me, all of my tension fading away.

‘Damn, for someone so small those were some big words.’ And though I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, I really appreciated them.

x

What Maybelline had said didn’t leave my head for the rest of the party and long after. they kept coming back.

As I lay in the bed I started daydreaming about earlier. How would it have been if I had really lifted that sword. How would it have been if I hadn’t gotten caught.

‘It would have been awesome.’ I thought, and tried to relax, but it felt wrong.

“A goddamn four year old has the mental strength to keep on doing what she loves despite ridicule, and here I am, a grown man daydreaming about what could have been!” I couldn’t let it go.Dinner wasn’t for another hour, so my parents wouldn’t miss me. But before I went, I stared at myself in the mirror.

“You are Jens. You are a strong person, both mentally and physically. You can do anything you put your mind to, now get out there and don’t let yourself be outdone by a four year old!”

x

The walk to the armoury had felt shorter that it had ever felt before, through it i was plagued by thoughts of giving up, but i quickly shot them down.

 

Finally I crossed the walkway and slammed the wooden doors open. I stormed to the section that housed the weapon I had tried to lift before and saw that the same guards were standing above me. They had apparently also noticed me. One of them tried to say something but thought otherwise when he saw my expression.

There it stood. the sword, the damn sword,taunting me just like the guards did earlier.”. I reached out for it, but stopped in doubt. But the doubt didn’t last and both of my hands took hold of the sword’s grip. 

‘Now, I won’t get it out by sheer force of will alone, last time proved that. I’m going to have to think.’ With calculated movements, I lowered my body down and placed it under the sword. I sat like that for a minute, mustering my strength, and suddenly I sprung up with all my force and the sword was lifted out of its rack. 

Having planned for this I threw my body under the now-raised blade and repeated the trick I had done before, raising the iron longsword over my head. It lasted only for a second, but I knew that one second was enough. It proved that I could do this, and most importantly it proved those asshole guards wrong. 

As the sword fell onto the floor I tried to “throw” it along with my body at the rack,but it seemed that my luck had run out, and I simply fell down on the floor. I lifted it up on the rack with my last remaining force and after the deal was done, I collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. 

After laying there for a while, trying to recover, I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and it was those two asshole guards. Not wanting to have anything to do with them, I threw his hand off, got up and went away, though at a much slower pace, all the while smiling this time.

x  
I watched the boss’s daughter limp off, then looked at my superior.

“Tariel, are you sure you want to just let her go? I think she thought we were laughing at her earlier because she couldn’t lift the sword.”

“No, let her have the satisfaction for now. You can apologize later.” 

I sighed. “Yes, lieutenant.” Then I went back from my break to clean the weapons. Zenithar, I hated this position.


	4. chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: I am back with another chapter, hopefully less shitty than my earlier chapters.  
> As always huge thanks to m.m rose for reading through my shit and fixing it, no words can describe how grateful I am for his help.

“Up, left, up, right, jab and hoooold!” The guard said, helping me focus on swinging the sword. When I jabbed the sword, I could barely hold it. My hands were stained with sweat and my muscles felt like they were tearing apart. Putting all of my strength into my arms, I held it out for one, two, three… and I couldn’t hold it out any longer. Exhausted, I dropped the sword and fell to my hands and knees.

 

“Good job, Adrianne! You are up to swinging the sword for 60 seconds!” He exclaimed and helped me back on my feet. 

Since I lifted that sword, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I tried my hand at smaller swords, but despite being easier to use, there was something missing from them. However, when I tried the longsword again it just felt right. So instead I started to train with the sword. That was more than a year ago.

I lifted my head and smiled at him, proud of my accomplishment. It would have been a nice moment if the sun didn’t choose right then to rise over the mansion and reflect off his glasses, and right at my eyes.

“Oh Divines!” I shouted and covered my head with my arm. In the past year I had, among other things, taught myself to replace “God” from my day-to-day vocabulary with “Divines” so I wouldn't arouse suspicion.

“Are you okay, Adrianne?” The guard asked me.

“I’m,... aah,...I’m fine. Just, please, aim your glasses away from me.” 

“Oh, sorry,” he replied and moved to the side so the sun didn’t hit them.

I wiped the few tears that had formed away and took a look at my temporary teacher in swordfighting. A young man with black hair and glasses looked back at me. 

Since the day I found out that he knew about the continent of Akaviri, I had started to come to him when I wanted to hear about some of this world’s lore that wasn’t available in the library.

I soon made it a habit to come and hang out with him when I wasn’t training or reading, which wasn’t a lot of time. Training to have the muscles to use longswords was a very demanding task that took up most of my day, and so was reading. But his personality grew on me and I began to read while chatting with him. My father must have noticed this because he promoted him to a permanent position within the household soon after. 

“All better?” He asked. 

“Yes, everything’s fine, Guard Number Three.” Calling him that was a running gag between us. It started when I realized two months ago that I didn't know his name. The conversation that followed was awkward, but at least I found out that he was an Imperial named Julius.

“Yes, now tomorrow let’s try to go up to... 23 seconds!” He patted me on the back.

“Where do you even get these numbers from? Three months of training with you and I had to hold it out for 6,9,11, 18 and 20. Out of all of those numbers only twenty was a reasonable one.”

“I read three books about training with heavy weaponry and asked two specialists for their opinion,” he replied, going over to the nearby tree to sit down . Its leaves created a pleasant mix of shadow and light on the ground.

“Of course you did,” I sighed before joining him under the tree. I wiped the sweat off my muscles with the help of a low hanging branch and put my shirt back on. I had no intention of wearing a dress during or after training, seeing how sweaty it became. Instead, I stole a shirt from my father and wore it after I had trained. While I trained I didn’t have a shirt on, my … chest ... hadn’t grown, yet.

‘Fuck you, God,’ I thought.

Relaxing under the huge cool shirt, I took a look at my surroundings. It was summer now and our whole garden was in full bloom. The trees and bushes made many hidden spaces inside the garden where Flowers bloomed freely, hidden by the trees and bushes and ignored by the gardeners. 

These hidden places were also awesome for when you wanted to be alone, which was why the garden was my favourite part of the house. It was in of these places that we now sat.

“Wait, the sun is shining over the house. That means it’s lunchtime. Oh divines,oh divines, oh divines.” I shouted and ran for my life towards the house, completely forgetting to say goodbye to Julius.

I ran down the halls of the first floor as fast as I could, my bare feet slapping fast against the cool floor. Finally I arrived at a set of big wooden doors and pushed them open, just barely catching myself from falling when entering the dining room.

My whole family was staring at me.

“Sorry for coming so late, I got caught up in training,” I apologized and went to the empty seat.

“This is the fifth time you’ve come late, Adrianne,” My mother said and shook her head, but I could see that she was smiling.

“Tenth time without shoes,” My sister remarked from her seat. I touched the floor again and could indeed feel that I wasn’t wearing any shoes, or socks for that matter, judging from the cold response I got.

“Anne, stop watching your sister’s every step. And Adrianne, remember that if you want to master either swordfighting or magic, you can’t be careless,” my father said to both of us.

“Yes, dad,” we both said.

Now that the conversation was over, I saw over what the cook had made today. On the table, three courses sat. Firsts consisted of leek soup with butter, all the fat in it making the soup shine like a diamond. For seconds, a venison steak had been prepared with a side of potatoes, beans and salad. The juices of the steak dripped down onto the sides, making it so that the meat almost floated in its own juices. And for dessert, a simple porridge had been prepared, butter melting on its surface. 

Seeing what our chef, Rok, had made brought a manly tear to my eye and I took a bit of everything. Eating his meals made each day a feast for me. But sometimes I longed for food from my world. 

‘I really need to find a way to invent burgers, pizza and ice cream soon. Maybe feed those ideas to Maybelline?’ I thought.

We continued to eat in silence until Anne broke it.

“So, what's with you being around the guard all the time?”

“Huh? Oh, you mean Julius. I just like to chat with him, that’s all.” I replied. Seriously, was it that hard to see?

“Really? Are you sure there’s nothing more?” She asked, fidgeting with her fork.

“What are you implying?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“That maybe, just maybe, my little sister has a crush?”

I was silent. Oh, that bitch did not just say that. 

“What did you just say, you pig?!” I shouted and pulled her towards me across the table, completely disregarding the food there. This bitch was going to pay. But before I could enact my revenge, my mother pulled me away from her.

“Adrianne, what has gotten into you!?” My mother shouted while my father comforted my distraught sister. 

“She insulted me!” I shouted back, trying as hard as I could to break free.

“Adrianne, your sister was teasing you! Now Adrianne Oges, apologize to your sister and never do that again.” My father raised his voice and I stopped struggling. 

“I’m sorry, Anne. I shouldn't have punched you. Please forgive me.” 

“That’s better. Now, as punishment you won’t be allowed to train for two months,” he said. I simply nodded and accepted my punishment. My father was usually quiet and kind, but I had seen the soldiers that drove my father to anger. Two months was a long time and I might fall out of practice, but I wasn’t eager to test him.

As we went back to our seats my sister said, ”You’ve totally got a crush on him,” when I passed her.

I proceeded to sucker punch her in the gut.

x

The whole year, that was my punishment. A whole year with no training. Why did my sister have to say that? 

No longer having the possibility to train was a serious problem. Training took half of my day and now I didn’t have anything to do. Luckily I wasn’t under house arrest. That would have been truly terrible.

I continued to pace around my room. The punishment was bad, no doubt about it, but what really bugged me was that my sister didn’t get any. She had provoked me and what did she get for it? Comforting from my parents, that’s what!

“Divines, I need a break.” 

Thinking further about it, I really needed a break from my family. Looking at the sun, I saw that it was now in the middle of the sky. The library should have opened by now. I guessed I could go there and eat dinner in the city, away from them. 

‘Yeah, why not. Got nothing better to do.’ My parents allowed me to go into the city if I had a bodyguard with me and there was still daytime left. Wayrest was one of the safest towns in High Rock and saw little to no crime, but I was the daughter of a knight and my father wanted to make sure I was safe.

Wayrest having little crime baffled me when I first found out. Somehow a port town in the medieval ages having almost no crime was less believable than magic being real.

As I exited the mansion and entered the garden a massive heat wave slammed into me. It was so hot that I had to take a step back. If I had to guess there was over 40 grades today. Despite this, the hellish temperature was more appealing than spending the rest of the day here. I went over to the hidden place in the garden where I usually trained, but found that Julius had gone away. After looking for him around the garden, I finally found him inside the armoury, shining an ornate silver battle axe in his short clothes. 

“Julius, would you mind coming with me down to the library?” I went up to him. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be having lunch?”

“It got…interrupted. But are you coming or not?” I replied, crossing my hands over my chest.

“Of course, but are you going in that shirt?” He pointed to me.

I looked down and realized that I still had no shoes and was wearing one of my father’s shirts. 

“Just give me ten minutes to change and meet me up near the gate.” I smiled sheepishly and ran up to my room.

After I had put on a light dress and my bag, I met up with Julius, now in his armour, on the road leading out of my house. When I greeted him he was standing under the shade of the wall and waving at me. We said our hellos and he unlocked the gate.

“So, do your parents know you’re going?” he asked, in the middle of opening the gate.

“I asked a maid to tell them,” I answered. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye but didn’t say anything else.

Once the gate had opened, we started our trip downtown.

My neighbourhood was a familiar place to me by now. It was a giant grid with each square housing a rich family. Each property was blocked from sight by a wall of trees or stone. This was because once a year, all of the families who lived in this area would go to each others’ house and show off their property. It was a lot of prestige to have your property be considered the most beautiful at the yearly meetup and the different families didn’t want anyone else stealing their Ideas. 

‘Now I know why my family didn’t let any of the grownups into the garden at my party.’

Julius and I both enjoyed walking in peace, so we didn’t bother each other with conversation. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him start to sweat.

Passing the wall around the neighbourhood, we saw the city of Wayrest down below, it’s blue roofs shining in the sunlight, extending almost all the way to the ocean that lay beside the city. Today the port seemed to be busier than usual. I guessed that it was probably due to some merchants from other provinces coming into town. Descending the hill from the castle, we saw an instant change in the size and stylishness of the buildings. Here the houses were tightly packed, leaving no room for even a front yard. However, the houses still had a personal touch to them, mostly in the form of some plants on their balconies.

Despite us entering into the common parts of the city, the architecture was still beautiful. The carpenters in High Rock were taught a magical technique that helped them reinforce the material. On metals, however, the technique had an opposite effect, and they would crumble easier than bread. So to make the streetlamps and other metal objects’ appearance match with the beauty and longevity of the town, they were made with reinforced wood enchanted to look like metal. This style was found almost everywhere in High Rock, but in Wayrest the metallic objects were actually made out of metal due to the high orc population lending their skills in smithing.

Passing through the unusually empty streets we saw every kind of shop: bakery, greens shop, butcher, fletcher and even blacksmith’s. 

After ten minutes of walking we finally reached our destination: The library.

The library was one of the biggest and most decorated buildings in the city, second only to the church and the castle. It had a huge dome situated upon a high foundation, so readers wouldn’t be distracted by the public when sitting next to the windows. Pillars lined each side of it, each one six stories tall. It was no skyscraper by any means, but it was impressive for this world. However the high foundation came with a cost - a huge staircase. By the time we had reached the top, I was exhausted from walking up so many steps, in addition to being cooked from being out in the sun for so long. While taking a breather, I noticed that Julius wasn’t near me. I turned my head, looking for him.

I found him about halfway up the steps, cooking in his own armour. He struggled up the steps, making almost no progress. At this pace it would take him forever to get up here. Not wanting to wait, I sprinted down the steps and tried to help him up. Unfortunately, I received a nasty surprise when I touched him, yanking my hand back almost instantly. The armour was scorching. 

“I told you not to wear the armour.”

“I… can’t protect you without it,” he wheezed and fell to his knees, taking in deep breaths. I sighed. It was nigh impossible to touch his armour right now, and no one around seemed to want to help. Guess waiting it was.

 

x

After some time we finally made it up the stairs and entered the cool shade of the library. I swear I saw him shed a tear when he entered the building, but I didn’t comment on it. 

The inside of the library was even more impressive than the outside. Light shone from the blue windows in the ceiling, bathing every floor of the library in an azure glow. Thousands of bookshelves lined the walls and bridges extended into the center of the library, connecting the sides of a floor together in a giant web and providing more space for books. What wasn’t lit up by the light from the window was illuminated by pedestals enchanted with magelight. It truly was an amazing sight and I loved to visit the place.

“So, Guard Number Three. Can you wait for me at the usual place? I just finished reading a book and I have to return it.” 

“No, sorry. I’m still your guard, and as your guard I have to protect you.” He straightened up, almost as if he wasn’t just crawling up some stairs while wheezing a minute ago.

“Fine, let’s go.”

x

After we had turned in the book, we wandered around the library for a bit. I quickly read the covers of the books to see if I could find something interesting. No, no, no, definitely no and… yes, I might actually read this.

“Hey, Julius, take a look at...” Looking around, I saw no trace of him. Damn, this was bad. If we didn’t find each other in time he might report me as missing. I wanted to go and look for him right then, but I couldn’t take my attention off the book.

I took it down from its shelf. Its title read Oblivion and the Daedra. Ooh, spicy meatball. Someone mustn't have done their job properly if this book was in the public section. From what I had heard from Julius, this book contained a ton of knowledge about the Daedra - their realms, their appearance, their history and finally - the reason this book wasn’t in the public section - how to summon them. 

I didn’t have any urge to sell my soul to some divine being, but the knowledge could always come in handy. Knowing that if I took this book through the official reception it would get confiscated and even if I by some miracle got past them, Julius would tell my parents, I scouted the area around me, and seeing no one there, I put the book inside of my bag.

Instantly uncertainty overwhelmed me. Stealing from the library, especially from the forbidden section, was no small crime. The library probably had some security measures against this kind of thing. If I got caught, it would mean a lot of trouble. But at the same time, this was some really valuable knowledge. Knowledge that I wouldn’t find out normally unless I became Head Mage of some college. No, this information was too valuable to pass up, but I couldn’t take this book with me. 

I carefully looked at the book, focusing my senses. Even as a beginner of magic, I could see that it had some enchantments on it. No doubt one of the enchantments was an alarm. But how to get the information? Suddenly it came over me.

‘If the mountain won’t go to Moses, then Moses will go to the mountain.’

While I couldn’t take this book with me, I could hide it somewhere in the library and study it in secret. I wouldn't be able to read it until I was allowed to go alone into the town, which wouldn’t be for a couple of years, but it would be worth it. 

‘You are a genius Jens!’ But where to put it? 

‘Hmm, yes! The dwemer section. Almost no one goes there, and it’s tucked away in a quiet corner of the library.’ Julius could wait. This was the catch of a lifetime.

x

To my surprise, there was actually someone sitting there. It was an Orc child about my age. He sat on the seat closest to the window, nose deep into a book and almost motionless. I couldn’t even hear breathing from him. Damn. I couldn’t hide the book now.

If I wanted this book hidden then I had to make him leave. I thought about how to do that. ’hmm, maybe that would work.’

I selected a book from the shelf and sat down next to him. My strategy was already beginning to work. I could see him getting uncomfortable. Time to add more pressure.

“So, what’cha reading?” I asked him, making my voice louder than usual.

“Uh… nothing… nothing interesting,” he said quietly.

“Come on, it has to be interesting if you’re sitting here alone reading it.”

“Uh, it’s about the-the Dwemer and their au-automatons.” His voice went even quieter.

“Cool, but why are you sitting alone here?” He was starting to shake. Good. Now that I was getting personal, he’d have to leave and I could put this book quietly away.

“Umm, my father and my mother aren’t home...” 

“But why? Parents don’t let their children be alone, do they?” Now was the time for him to storm out, I could feel it. What I didn’t expect was for the kid to hug me, break down crying and start telling me all about his personal life in full detail. 

His father and mother fought in a secret fighting ring for money, and they wanted to shape this kid, Borkul, into another pit fighter. However, he said that his true passion was not for pit fighting, but for researching ancient civilizations and their technology.

“Oh, thank you, thank you for listening to me!” He finally stopped hugging me. “Thank you again. And about before, I’m reading about how the Dwemer made their ballistas, much better than ours, really cool and...” He talked on and on, suddenly becoming way more talkative and upbeat.

As he dragged me about, telling me all about his passions, all my mind could think was:  
What the hell had just happened?


	5. Chapter 5

“And that’s why dwarven metal can only be found in Dwemer or Ayleid ruins.” 

Ten minutes, ten minutes of non stop yammering. What was supposed to be a quick and easy trick to get the kid to leave had turned into a long and painful torture for me. I stared at his smiling, bald face and waited for him to start again but it seemed he was finished.

“Finished?” I asked slowly, trying to get my uneasiness across to him.

“Well yeah. I’m finished on metallurgy, but there is so much more, automatons, architecture, lore..”

“No,no I have to..” I tried to interrupt.

“and even after that there is diplomacy, magic, beliefs and so much more!” he said, letting out a small laugh as he finished talking.

“Look, I would love to have you tell me about the Dwemer and Ayleid, but my guard is looking for me, so i’m afraid I have to go.” I had wasted way too much time here, I had to find Julius before he reported me missing. 

 

I heard Borkul shouting behind me but ignored him and stormed off into the wider library and started searching for Julius.

x  
I tried to shout for the girl to stop, but she didn’t hear me.

“Oh, no how am I supposed to tell her that she forgot her book now?” I looked down at the book and saw it had a really strange cover. I’ve read books my entire life and have never seen a book with a cover like this.

“Interesting.”

I flipped the book over to see what its name was.   
x

Running full force I entered the lobby of the library. Desperately I looked around, trying to see if Julius was in the group of people that were at the library today. Not many had bothered to come to the library due to the scorching heat but there were still some students and the odd adult wandering around the lobby, books in hand. Scanning over the group I eventually saw a bright light reflect off some silver armour. I looked at where the light had come from and sure enough, Julius was standing there. From what I could see he was borderline shouting at the librarian next to him. 

“Adrianne, where were you?” He went up to me as soon as he saw me approaching.

“I g-got lost.” I said wiping away the tears and sweat that had formed. I couldn’t let something like this happen again. He patted me on the back.

“Don’t worry Anne, everything’s okay.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry, I was just running here and you know, the wind and everything...” I apologized.

“LIke I said Anne, nothing to worry about.” He said as he calmed me down with another pat.

“I see everything went well without our intervention, I trust I can go now or is there some other matter you would like me to help you with?”

“You can go.” I said and the librarian bowed and went away.

We stood there like that for a moment not saying a single word.

I wanted to say something but before I could say a word my stomach growled, speaking for me. I laughed sheepishly.

“So what time is it anyway?”

“Hold on, let me check.” He waved his hand and his eyes lit up for a second. “It’s four right now.”

“Can we go to an inn and get something to eat then?” It was about the right time after all, plus the talking and the running had worked up an appetite in me.

“Don’t you want to eat what Rok’s making though?”

“I mean, we don’t often eat in the city, so I was thinking we could get out and have something new for a change?”

“ Very well. Will your parent’s come too?” he motioned for me to come with him and we exited the library. Julius instantly staggered back due to the heat.

“No, they seem to be of a different opinion when it comes to how food should be eaten.”

I briefly saw him staring at me before continuing down the giant staircase.  
x

Venison chop, leek soup or some Horker stew? They all sounded delicious but I don’t think I can eat more than one of them. 

“Finished picking what you want to eat?” Julius said behind me, inspecting the exterior of the inn we were standing by, Julius told me the place had been recommended to him. By now the sun had been lowered behind the hills on the other side of town and Wayrest once more assumed a pleasant temperature.

“No, I just can’t decide what to eat.” I scratched my chin. “Have you ever eaten here before? Something to recommend?” Normally Rok would choose our menu for the day and since this was the first time ever I ate out in Tamriel and the fact that I didn’t recognize anything on the menu made it so I had no idea what to get.

“Well, I haven’t eaten in this place before, but Hjalmar, the nord recruit always brags about how good horker stew is.” He walked over to me and pointed it out on the menu.

“I guess we’ll have to trust your friend. Let’s go and order our food.”

With our food choices out of the way we entered the inn named “”the tiny actor”. Passing the door we were greeted by a stark contrast to the clean outside of the inn. The walls were instead of stone, made out of light wood and engraved with celtic, or rather nordic markings. Whereas the streets had been empty, the inn was bursting with people and noise. Wherever I looked there was something going on. Attractive ladies of all races carried drinks around the inn, scantily clad in a brown tunic that covered just enough for the place to not be considered a strip joint. Groups of young men were drinking and eating to their heart's content. Veteran warriors bragged about their accomplishments in previous battles. And of course the floor was littered with black out drunks. The air was reeking of alcohol and a layer of smoke had settled at the top of the ceiling. 

“Julius, who recommended this place to you?” I looked over to him and saw him pinching the bridge of his nose.

“The other recruits did, should have guessed it wouldn’t be fit for kids. Ugh, and we went to the other side of town for this...” He sighed, a sentiment which was shared by me.

“Well, I didn’t see any other inns on the way here so I guess we’ll have to eat here.”

“No.” He shot down the proposition as soon as it left my mouth.

“Wait, why?”

“Anne, your parents would fire me if they knew I brought you here.”

“But...”

“No, we will not eat here.” Julius said.

“Can we at least buy something here and eat it outside? I’m starving and I’m in no mood to go to the other side of the city.”

“I’m not sure...”

“C’mon, i’ll stay outside so they don’t see me in the inn.” 

“That would mean letting you stay outside here alone, that would be even worse.”

I sighed and braced myself for a long trip through the city, trying to convince him seemed like a useless endeavour right now.

“But I can agree with you, I’m in no mood either. If you have something to cover your face with then we’ll order something and be gone as quickly as possible.”

Now filled with a glimmer of hope my I carefully went through my bag and hoped that I could find something which would hide me. But no matter how much I looked I wasn’t able to find anything in the bag, but that didn’t stop me from searching further.

“Anne, if you can’t find anything then I’m afraid we will have to go.”

Damn it! If it were just a little colder then I would’ve wore the dress with the hood and I could have eaten something. After searching for another minute I saw that there was nothing I could do. I resigned myself and once more got ready to go.

“Don’t be mad Adrianne, I can’t do otherwise.” He said behind me, walking up to me.

“I’m not mad, I understand you.”

X

“See that, Inga? A kid just waltzed right into the bar, now that’s something ya don’t see everyday.” I shouted to Inga, my wife and fellow inn owner over the customer’s shouting.

“Focus on the work and not on small girls, you slob!” She shouted back from the other end of the counter, busy taking the order of a fat dark elf.

“Whaa? What girl?” A drunk man asked, lifting his head from the counter where he had collapsed.

“Why, it’s the strangest thing…” Before I could finish my sentence a slew of other drunken voices asked the same question. Coming back to my bearings I started again.  
“Well as I was saying...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update. Fyi i’m going on vacation and not coming back until july, so don’t expect updates until then. Thanks again for all of the reviews, I have read them and tried to improve. I tried my best with the dialogue in this chapter, if you can please write a review telling me what you think about it. As always criticism is appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors note:   
> First off, I’m extremely sorry for not having updated my fanfic in such a long time. The plan was for this chapter to be out by the end of August, but I got sick for a while and then I had to do a lot of schoolwork. 
> 
>  
> 
> Second of all, I’m considering writing this whole story in third person, and have therefore written this whole chapter in third person. Feedback on this would be appreciated.
> 
> Infact, any feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. And with that, I leave you to the fic.(Chapter edited by pibbXtra69)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sun was setting. The streets were now being rapidly filled up by the night crowd of Wayrest. Borkul was walking home through the streets, dodging people as he went.

His mind was playing a scene from earlier on a loop.

He looked around the library for Adrianne but wasn’t able to find her.

“Oh, no... how am I supposed to return the book she forgot?” he looked down at it and noticed it had a rather strange cover. He’d visited the library as often as he could and had never seen a cover like this.

‘The library never binds their books in high quality leather like this. Maybe it’s a book i’ve missed?’

He flipped the book over to see what its name was.

“What? No, no this can’t be right.” He read the title again. He tried to tear off the cover, expecting it to be a fake, skimming through it in hopes of it being about something else and closing his eyes and opening them, as if reality was simply jesting with him.

But no matter how many times he went through the same cycle of actions, nothing changed. After the tenth time tears started to fill his eyes, hitting the cover of the book titled “Oblivion and the Daedra”. 

He couldn’t take it anymore and he snarled and threw the book across the room, it hitting the floor under a desk. 

“How did she get that book?!” He cried out, not caring at the moment if a librarian would be able to hear him. “No...No!” He muttered.

‘There is no way Adrianne would have this book. She is a good person, good people don’t worship daedra! So that means that if someone bad must have put it there...yeah.’ He concluded, the reasoning seemingly sound to him.

He stared wide eyed into nothing as if a great revelation had hit him ‘But if someone bad must have put it there then that means that she’s in danger!’ He gasped, recalling the tales he had read of treacherous figures blackmailing the heroes. ‘My friend is in danger! I have to warn her!’ 

 

He spent the rest of the day looking for her in the neighbourhood around the library but no matter how much he shouted or how hard he looked, he couldn’t find her. Eventually, with the hour turning late, he had to resign his search.

While Borkul’s head hung low, and a few tears pooled under his eyes, he half mindedly turned corners on the road.

Eventually he descended down a short hill into the harbor district. The moon had now stolen the sky from the sun and the shadier characters of Wayrest had started appearing appearing. Lightly clad women stood outside of taverns, Khajiiti with a darting eyes whispered something to passerbys, and unfriendly redguard and breton sailors glaring at any orc they saw with disdain. Sights like these became more and more common the deeper he went, and guards became less so.

 

Borkul entered an alley some ways from the harbor and after jumping over a puddle in the cracked road, entered a tiny courtyard with 3 doors. Borkul turned and knocked on the left door, it being in a slightly better state than the others. After a few seconds a panel sled open from the ill kept door revealing a female orcish face.

“Back from the library, Borkul?” The woman sneered as she opened the door

The door opened, revealing a burly female Orc who was Borkul’s mother. Borkul quickly swiped away his tears and entered his house through the narrow hallway. The familiar smell of dust, sweat, dirt and half rotten fish greeted him.

“Aren’t you going to say hello, son?” Yikka asked , not bothering to even look at Borkul. Likewise, Borkul didn’t bother to respond. “Our genius has returned Grobar!” She shouted at someone further into the house and went through a narrow doorway, devoid of any door, and into the living room. Borkul soon followed, dropping his ragged bag when he passed the doorway. 

He saw that their table had been pushed next to the family bed, the family lacking any chairs for it. Not waiting for his parents to invite him he sat beside his mother on the bed and looked at his meal, a tasteless fish soup which was bearly as warm as the room around them. Despite its look he eagerly gobbled up the soup, being careful so none of it would fly out of his bowl.

“So, boy how was your studying today?” His father asked in a friendly tone as he ate, some of the soup spilling down and dirtying his beard.

“I-it was nice, I even met a friend!” At that news both Grobar and Yikka froze up, Yikka’s unhappy expression momentarily changing to surprise, but went quickly back to its usual malcontent expression.

“Wha- What? That’s wonderful my boy! Now tell me what is your friends name?” Grobar turned to his son, pushing an arm over his shoulder. 

“A-adriann-ne” He stuttered out.

“Adrianne? But that’s a gir… ooh found yourself a lady have you, ha ha! Be sure to invite her, wouldn’t do for her to not know the parents of her man” Borkul cheeks turned to a slightly darker hue of green and he hid his face in between his arms while his father continued to tease him. 

“Just like the last ten?.” Yikka barked out from her spot, glaring at Borkul.  
“Oh come on Yikka now, don’t you have a little faith in our little boy?” not wasting a second she gave her answer:  
“No”

Grobar shut up and the dinner resumed in total silence. 

x

 

The situation at Jens house was unpleasant. But not for the usual reasons of his sister annoying him. His parents were taking that responsibility today.

His new mother had been furious at him for not returning home before sundown, she lectured him for what felt like two hours to him. Jens tuned out most of it, only saying the occasional “I’ll be sure to do that.” and “Fine” to pretend he was listening.

He tried to calm her by telling her that he and Julius had made sure to walk through the good parts of town once in the lecture, bad idea. It only served to turn her anger into disappointment, since according to her that meant he knew he was breaking the rules. 

If one knew her it was unsurprising that she calmed down quickly after her tirade had finished ,and hugged him instead. Not letting go until he promised to never scare her like that again.

 

While she lectured him, his father sat at his neatly organized table and stared at him. For Jens, it was chilling, almost like his father had just pulled of his head to reveal he was the next Maine of the Khajiiti people. 

I’m even starting to think like them now. He thought to himself.

His mother left afterwards to check on his sister and see if she was doing okay. She had shut herself in her room after yesterday and refused to talk to anyone except the servants who carried her food up to her room.

He was about to leave too when his father stopped him. Contrary to Jen’s mother long winded lecture, he spartanically told him that he expected better of him, and that he wanted to have a talk with him the next day after dinner. 

And that was what bothered him the most. His sister? He would apologize to her, she was being annoying and frankly, offensive but she didn’t know about his situation so punching her was uncalled for, he guessed, especially with the force which he did it with. 

‘Plus, even if she didn’t accept it this would probably be something that she will forget and forgive as we grow older, chalking it up to me being a kid...I hope’

His mother? She was just so happy to see that he was alright that she would probably forget about punishing him.

No, what was the most unpleasant was the tone his father used with him, while nowhere near as cold as how he talked to the soldiers who screwed up big time, it was still colder than anything he had used on his family.

He heard the clock, emitting six loud gongs. He gulped, the time for the talk had come.

x

“Enter” 

Erver looked up when Jens entered his study, and calmly put a piece of parchment he was writing on into one of his drawers.

Jens tried to maintain a calm expression despite the sweat that was trickling down his face. He approached Erver’s desk, each one of his steps creaking on the floor, and pulled up a chair.

“Adrianne...” Erver began and stopped his sentence, deciding what would be best to say.”you are a noble’s daughter, you may not act like it but never forget that is still who you are.” 

“I am aware.” Jens responded, shifting in his seat, his left hand pulling up his dress a bit so it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable to sit on. Crap, Erver might see that as snark. Jens thought. Remember, be polite, be a good listener and don’t show fear. Almost like my job interview. 

“let me finish. You understand that the court of Wayrest aren’t Stendarr incarnate, there are many there I myself would consider to be about as helpful to the city as the brigands roaming the wild.” He locked his hands together and his stare intensified. If it had been anyone but his father, he would have been annoyed at how condescending the whole thing was.

“They would do anything in their power to gain more of it, and that includes killing or disabling lords or knights out of the race. And a kidnapped daughter would be a good way to do just that.”

“Therefore I can’t allow you to go to the city anymore...”

Jens sat there in silence, pleading in his mind that he had heard wrong. He almost stood up and tried to argue, but he wouldn’t. He was already in bad water with his father after yesterday’s ordeal, arguing now would probably only make it worse. 

“Without three guards with you at all times.” 

He almost wanted to thank god then, but he didn’t. 

“And Adrianne?, I want you to apologize to your sister,”  
x

 

He paced back and forth in front of the door to his sisters room. He had never been one for much social interaction in his previous life, never quite fitting into a crowd and each time he tried it only served to make him uncomfortable and make him think back to it in shame and regret for the rest of the week. The only reason he had become a manager was so he could avoid talking to customers as much. 

His social inexperience made him struggle to think of something appropriate to say to his sister.

“GO AWAY MOTHER, I DON’T WANT ANY OF YOUR LECTURES!” 

She must have heard my footsteps.

He composed himself as best as he could and called out to his sister. 

“Anne, it’s me, Adrianne!” He said just loud enough for her to hear. He heard something from the other side of the door akin to furniture being moved. Quickly realizing what was happening, he opened the door before Anne could push the piece of furniture, a small drawer to block it. 

They stared at each other for a minute, no one uttering a word.

Let’s get this over with.

“Anne, I apologize” she glared at him for ten more seconds, she tried to look angry and intimidating but he could see that her lips were quivering. Finally, she snapped out of it.

“Apol-lo-gi, argh, Apologize for what dear sister?” She turned around, facing away from Adrianne.

“For what happened at dinner.”

“What, did mother get you to say that?” Anne huffed. “Or was it father!?”

“Please Anne, I’m trying...” He neared himself to her and tried to hug her. But as soon as he touched her she threw his arm off her and stormed off to the window, still refusing to look at him.

“You hit me!” She screamed even higher, now turning back around towards me.

Because you were being a bitch.

“I acted rashly, but so did you”

“What did I do?! I made a small joke, and then you hit me! Twice.” She started crying, her lips giving in, and then sobbed, it only got harder and louder the longer it went on.

“Leave!” She screamed and then jumped onto the bed and buried her head in her pillow. He wanted to think of something reassuring to say. Even though she was annoying at times, she was still his sister.   
But nothing helpful came to him. “Leave!” She screamed again.

He resigned himself to his failure and consoled himself with the thought that maybe he could try at another time. 

“Just a childhood grudge, just a childhood grudge…” he muttered as he exited her room and went to his own.


End file.
